


Learning to fly

by atleast3letterslong



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Daichi is the best captain, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Team Fluff, cheesy metaphors, dramatic speeches, sports adaptations, visual impairment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-02-14 01:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2172579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atleast3letterslong/pseuds/atleast3letterslong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsukishima Kei dealt with the fact that he would one day be blind like most people deal with the fact that they will one day die- as something happening so far in the future that it requires very little consideration in the present.</p><p>Then, in high school, it became something he could no longer ignore. </p><p>AU in which Tsukishima has a degenerative eye disease</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Daichi blackmails Tsukki into not quitting the volleyball club

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for brief descriptions of derealization

Tsukishima Kei dealt with the fact that he would one day be blind like most people deal with the fact that they will one day die- as something happening so far in the future that it requires very little consideration in the present. It was something that he only allowed himself to think about in short bursts of time spread out far apart. 

He had been an elementary school fourth grader when his parents realized something was wrong. Although they had bought their son new glasses only two months prior he was already struggling to see the TV and having to hold his books so close to his face that the tip of his nose brushed the page. After visiting their normal in-shop eye doctor and being referred to several different ophthalmological specialists they had their answer- a degenerative eye disease that would most likely lead to legal blindness. They were told that there was no cure and no treatment.

Despite this grim news, Tsukishima was never particularly bothered. Arrangements were made to always have his seat be at the front of the class (to the immense irritation of the shorter students who had to sit behind him) and special magnifying lenses were put into the bottom half of his glasses to make reading easier (although he soon grew to prefer audiobooks, which he could listen to anywhere thanks to his trustworthy headphones and an mp3 player). It was a little bit scary at first, as his vision declined fairly rapidly, and sometimes he would startle awake in the middle of the night from pitch-black nightmares filled with monsters he would never see, ready to attack. Thankfully, the decline in his vision hit a plateau shortly before entering middle school, and his vision became something he hardly ever considered. He was able to blend in with the other students and play volleyball, and that was all that mattered. 

Then, in high school, it became something he could no longer ignore. 

At first he was able to deny to himself that there was a problem. When he struggled to read the board he blamed it on teachers not writing firmly enough. When he passed the ball to Ennoshita instead of Daichi during practice he rationalized that they were around the same height and had similar enough hairstyles and it was a mistake anyone could make if they weren’t paying enough attention. And then it happened, something that even he could not ignore.

 

They were playing an in-team practice match- half the team on one side, the other half on the other. Hinata, Kageyama, Nishinoya, Asahi, and Kinoshita were on one team and he, Yamaguchi, Suga, Daichi, Ennoshita, and Tanaka were on the other. He was in the rear guard and it was in the middle of a particularly intense volley. He heard the sharp crack of someone hitting the ball on the other side and frantically moved his eyes around the court trying to figure out where the hit came from and where it was going. He couldn’t see the ball anywhere. In the swirling blur of colors that was his teammates, and against the neural color of the court, the ball was lost.

It only took him a split second to realize this before he felt a fast moving object brush past his face. He heard the telltale sound of the ball hitting the ground and stood there frozen. 

“Bahahahaha! What was that?” Tanaka cried out from his right. 

“You didn’t even move!!” Nishinoya shouted from over the net. 

“Are you alright Tsukki?” Yamaguchi asked, and from the way his voice got louder Tsukishima could tell he was getting closer.

He didn’t respond. At least, not at first. His whole body felt numb, like somebody had sucked out all his blood and replaced it with ice water. It felt like he had swallowed a fifty-pound weight that was slowly working its way down and pulling his stomach towards the ground. For a moment nothing felt real, it felt like he was floating somewhere outside of his body, watching as this terrible moment happened to someone else. The reality of his situation truly hit him for the first time. He was going blind. The word seemed to echo inside his mind. Blind. 

“Tsukki? Hey Tsukki are you okay!?” Yamaguchi was right in front of him, waving a hand in front of his face and sounding concerned. Tsukishima came back to his senses and realized that he had been frozen in the same position- leaning slightly forward with legs shoulder length apart, knees bent, arms out at each side and slightly bent at the elbows- for several seconds past the time where it would be considered normal. He straightened up and cleared his throat. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting anything particularly interesting and so I stopped paying attention.” He said, putting on the haughty look he typically wore. 

“What was that you assho-!” He heard Kageyama scream.

“You’re just bitter ‘cuz we’re so fast!” Hinata interjected.

“Don’t interrupt me you dumbass!” 

“Don’t call me dumbass, turd-face!” Tsukishima couldn’t see them very well, but judging by how the bright orange blob that he knew was Hinata’s hair was floating about a foot higher than normal, his guess was that Kageyama had lifted him up by his head.

“Enough!” Daichi shouted with his “scary-senpai voice.” “Tsukishima! Toss that ball over to the other side. And pay closer attention from now on.” Tsukishima did as he was told, luckily he could see the ball now that it was sitting still off to the side of the court, and the rest of practice continued smoothly, with no further problems caused by his vision and with only the normal amount of Kageyama-Hinata fighting. 

 

When practice was over he told Yamaguchi to walk home without him (citing a need to go to an out-of-the-way store to pick up some groceries on his mother’s request) and walked into the clubroom.

For the most part everyone had cleared out, save for Daichi and Suga who were standing in the middle of the room chatting about some teacher or school assignment or nothing. Even after pretending to search through his locker for around 20 minutes their conversation seemed to show no signs of stopping anytime soon. Quickly losing patience he spun around.

“Sugawara-senpai could you please leave, I need to speak to Sawamura-senpai about something.” He said bluntly, but politely, looking in the general direction of Sugawara’s face. 

“Ah? Oh, yeah, sure. No problem.” He replied. Though he couldn’t see his eyes, he could tell that Sugawara did not stop looking at him the whole time he gathered his things and exited the room. When he was gone Daichi turned his full attention onto Tsukishima. 

“What’s up?” He asked, leaning against the lockers with his arms crossed.

Tsukishima pushed his arms to his sides and leaned the top half of his body forward into a bow. “I am here to formally declare my withdrawal from the volleyball club.” He said, focusing on remembering his formal speech in order to prevent any emotion from showing through in his voice. 

“What?” Daichi stood up straight, letting his arms fall to his sides. “Is this about earlier? Look, I know everyone was kind of harsh on you, but it wasn’t out of meanness, they were just razzing on you. I can talk to them if you want, tell them to let up a little?”

“It isn’t that.” Tsukishima replied, irritation creeping into his voice. “I don’t care what those losers say to me, I can hold my own in those things.”

“Don’t call them losers, they are your teammates.” Daichi scolded. “And if it isn’t that, then what is it? The mistake you made? Mistakes happen to anyone, it doesn't mean you aren’t a good player. Hinata is a great player and he still hits the net with about half of serves and receives the ball with his face more often than with his arms. I give this speech to Asahi all the time, although I have to say I’m rather surprised to have to give it to you-”

“It’s not that!” Tsukishima yelled, frustration and anger with the situation finally getting the better of him. “It’s- I- Never mind, I’m leaving.” He said, trying to look as cool as possible as he grabbed his bag and moved towards the door. He did not get very far, however, as Daichi had moved to block the door, using every part of his body to prevent an escape. 

“Not so fast.” Daichi said. “You owe it to me, no, to the team, to at least give a reason why you are leaving. Whatever this is, I can tell it is serious, I’ve never seen you this worked up before. You don’t have to deal with everything on your own you know. It’s okay to rely on the team sometimes. We may tease and fight and joke but we care about you. You are a valuable member of the team and an important friend.” He stopped and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “Ah, somehow that speech was kind of embarrassing wasn’t it?”

“Pathetically embarrassing.” Tsukishima said, looking down and away from Daichi and praying that his face wasn’t flushing. 

Daichi relaxed from his position in the doorway and moved over to one of the benches. He sat down and then patted the empty spot next to him. “Why don’t you sit?” He said in a voice far more commanding than one would usually say such a gentle phrase with. “If you try and run I will chase after you, and although your legs are long, I guarantee I am faster and I will catch you and I’m pretty sure that is not something you want.” 

Tsukishima hesitated near the doorway for a second and considered his options. It was already dark out and his night vision had been pathetic lately and if he tried to run without allowing time to adjust from the well-lit room he would most likely go crashing down the stairs and probably end up breaking something. While that would be a good excuse to leave the club he really didn’t fancy a trip to the hospital. Besides, even if he did make it down the stairs he didn’t think Daichi was bluffing in the least in regards to chasing him down. That was an embarrassment he REALLY wasn’t in the mood for. 

Not seeing any better option, he moved towards the bench and sat down as far away from Daichi as possible. He laced his fingers together, put his elbows on his knees, and rested his forehead on the top of his hands. Things were silent for a bit while he tried to think of a way to get out of this. Seeing no readily available lie that he could get Daichi to believe he ended up going with his most desperate plan- the truth. It took him probably about ten minutes to work up enough courage to spit it out, and the whole time Daichi sat quietly and patiently next to him.

“I’m going blind.” He said in a voice only faintly louder than a whisper. He realized it was the first time he had ever said anything about his visual impairment out loud. He hated how small and scared his voice sounded. For the second time that day he felt numb and detached. 

“What do you mean?” Daichi asked after careful consideration. He knew that this was obviously something a little more serious than needing new glasses, but wasn’t quite able to properly process this new fact. 

“I- “ Tsukishima started before his throat closed shut. His mouth was desperately dry and he started frantically rooting around in his bag for his water bottle. After fruitlessly searching for it for a few seconds Daichi seemed to realize what was happening and handed over his own water bottle, which Tsukishima grabbed without hesitation. After chugging down the contents and wiping his mouth he tried again.

“I have a degenerative eye condition. It’s kind of hard to explain but basically it’s caused by toxins building up in my eyes. I’ve had it since I was a kid. It has been pretty stable for a while but lately it’s been slowly getting worse. Right now, everything is just kind of blurry and wavy, and my eyes don’t adjust very well to darkness, but eventually it’ll probably get worse and I’ll get blind spots and I could even lose my color vision. When I was first diagnosed we were told that with some people it doesn’t get too bad and they can even drive, but it seems like I am not one of the luckier ones and I will probably end up being legally blind someday. I’ve just been, kind of… ignoring it for a while now but today-“ his voice wavered ever so slightly “-today, I heard the ball get hit, but I couldn’t see it anywhere, it just blended together with everything and I couldn’t see it and before I knew it it had gone right past me.” He took a breath and steadied himself. “I think that it is probably a sign that I should stop playing volleyball. I mean, what kind of player is one who can’t even see the ball. It’s pathetic.” I’m pathetic, he thought. 

The whole time Tsukishima was delivering his speech Daichi sat silently and listened but at this he finally spoke.

“Don’t say that. Don’t say it’s pathetic. Everybody has weaknesses they need to overcome. I know you probably hate being compared to Hinata but think about it. He is probably one of the shortest, if not the shortest, aspiring aces in volleyball history. When he realized that he was probably never going to end up being tall did he give up volleyball? Did he tell himself that it was pathetic for someone so short to play volleyball? No. He adapted. He learned to jump. He learned to fly. Tell me something, do you like volleyball?”

Tsukishima thought for a second. While it was true he had originally started playing to emulate his older brother, why did he keep playing? He thought for a moment about the feeling when he successfully blocked a good spike, about how good it felt to perfect a new serve, about how nice it was to connect with people, not with words, but with actions, with keeping the ball moving and in play. He thought of how horrible he felt when he realized he would have to quit. He really did love it.

“I do. I like volleyball.” He said, finally looking up at Daichi. 

“That’s what I thought. If you really, truly like it then there is nothing that can stop you from playing. For every problem that crops up we will find ten more solutions. Like I said before, you aren’t in this alone. We are a team. If you can’t reach your goals on your own we will teach you to fly. So you are absolutely forbidden from quitting.” Daichi said, standing up to deliver the final sentence. 

Tsukishima couldn’t contain himself any longer. He burst out laughing. “…t-teach me to fly?” he said between helpless giggles “so… so cheesy” 

“I’m a little embarrassed.” Daichi said. “But I’m glad you are able to laugh! I think you probably don’t get to laugh enough.” 

It took a few seconds but Tsukishima’s laughter died down and he became serious again.

“Daichi-senpai, please do not tell the rest of the team about this.”

“Does Yamaguchi know?”

“No. You are the only person I’ve ever told. Even my teachers don’t know the whole story. They just think my eyesight is bad in the normal sense.”

“I will promise not to tell anyone if you promise not to quit the team. Deal?” Daichi said, reaching out his hand for a handshake.

“That’s blackmail. You are blackmailing me.” Tsukishima said, reaching out his hand anyways. They shook hands.

“Maybe it is. I’m your captain. I’m allowed to do that probably.” Daichi said, letting go of Tsukishima’s hand.

“I don’t think it works that way.” Tsukishima said as they both gathered up their things and left the club room. 

“Either way I expect to see you at morning practice on Monday.” Daichi replied. Tsukishima stayed on the landing to let his eyes adjust before moving while Daichi began to make his way down the stairs. Halfway to the bottom he paused and turned around.

“I know it’s not really my place but I think you should talk to Yamaguchi. He worries about you and cares about you a lot you know?” And with that Daichi turned back around and made his way home.


	2. In which the third years vandalize school property

Sawamura Daichi led a relatively tame life. While he wasn’t adverse to a little trouble making or rule breaking every once in a while, he was not a delinquent and most certainly was not a party animal. As such, he was not the sort who tended to wake up with no clue as to his location. Despite this, the morning after his little talk with Tsukishima he found himself waking up very disoriented some place that was most certainly not his bed.

As he slowly regained consciousness he became aware of a few things. First off he was sitting, not lying down. His head was bent at an unnatural angle and something thin and hard was pressing against his face. He gingerly lifted his head up and pushed on his chin to crack his neck. Looking down he realized that not only had he fallen asleep on his desk, but he had also slept with his face directly on top of an uncapped pen. Great.

He rose from his desk, his joints creaking in a way inappropriate for his young age, and made his way down the hall to the bathroom. When he was finished relieving himself, he walked over to the sink to wash his hands and caught sign of his face in the mirror. The uncapped pen had done quite a number on him, and the surface of his face was marred with multiple long, dark marks. After spending a couple minutes splashing water on his face and scrubbing vigorously he declared his face “clean enough” and headed back towards his bedroom.

Washing his face helped a lot and he was feeling much more awake and coherent as he surveyed his desk for a second time. His laptop was pushed off to the side slightly and had long ago entered sleep mode- its screen dark and dusty. Almost every other available space on his desk was covered with sheets of paper full of notes and lists- the one exception being the place where he had previously had his head down. He remembered now that he had cleared a spot the previous night (or more accurately, earlier that morning) so that he could rest his head for “just a moment.” So much for that. Slightly to the right of where he had fallen asleep sat his phone. He picked it up and pressed a button to wake it up. In doing this in learned two things- one, that it was just after ten in the morning, and two, that Suga had messaged him.

[Time: 9:35]  
[From: Suga]  
[Subject: Last night]  
[Message: What was up with Tsukishima last night? Everything alright??]

While he hadn’t forgotten the events of the previous night, the memories had not been in the forefront of his mind. Suga’s text, however, brought everything back again. Tsukishima was going blind. He had been for a while but it had gotten so bad recently that he had missed a ball heading straight for him. He was planning to quit the team unless Daichi could come up with some sort of solution. Daichi fully intended to come up with a solution. He shoved his phone in his pocket, gathered up the papers scattered all over his desk and began to flip through them. 

He had gotten home after practice focused and determined. After hurriedly gulping down his dinner he told his parents he had a lot of homework and proceeded to lock himself in his room for the night. He had started simple, with a search for “blind volleyball.” While that had gotten him a lot of results, most of the information he found was on accommodations for total blindness and included ideas that, while possibly useful at some point in the future, would probably get him killed or seriously maimed for suggesting in the present. 

After modifying his search terms a couple times he came upon a cluster of sites offering tips on adapting a variety of sports to include players with varying levels of sight loss to play alongside sighted players. His notes were filled with information about ways to mark court lines so that they would be heard or felt, balls that contain tiny machines that emit a beeping noise so that they can be tracked by sound alone, and all the information he could get on a variety of different degenerative eye conditions and the adaptations that were most effective for each. At one point he read something about how using contrasting colors could help visually disadvantaged players distinguish between various objects on the playing field, and in researching this he ended up reading an article about color theory on a website devoted to miniature figurine painting.

All together he had around fourteen pages of notes. While last night he had written down everything that had seemed even remotely interesting or useful, he knew that today he had to separate out the “useful now” information and consolidate it into a useful plan that would keep Tsukishima from quitting the team. He sat down at his desk, pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and began writing.

Current Problem: Tsukishima could not see the ball at practice  
Ramifications: He was unable to hit the ball  
Solutions: -noise making ball  
Pros: useful no matter how much his sight declines  
Cons: expensive, very obvious, would probably anger him  
-have other players announce where the ball is heading  
Pros: free, encourages other players to pay better attention  
Cons: annoying, unreliable, not very precise  
-use more contrasting colored balls  
Pros: fairly minor change, could help other players  
Cons: possibly expensive, need an explanation for the team

As he finished writing the last sentence his phone buzzed. 

“Suga again?” he pondered out loud. He dug his phone from his pocket and looked down at the small screen. 

[Time: 10:37]  
[From: Asahi]  
[Subject: Future Plans]  
[Message: hey daichi have you finished filling out the future plans survey yet?]

Shit. The future plans survey. It was due tomorrow and he hadn’t even looked at it yet. He reached over to where his school bag leaned against his desk and fished the crumpled piece of paper from the bottom. 

As he smoothed it flat onto his desk he thought to himself that it was a simple enough assignment. All it was was a single-sided piece of paper asking whether he wanted to work or go to college, what sort of job he wanted in the future, what colleges he was looking at, etc., but for the life of him he couldn’t think of a thing to write. They had received the handouts well over a month ago and this was the first time he had brought himself to revisit the issue. 

Every day had been the same. He made excuses to himself about being too tired after practice, about definitely for sure thinking about it as hard as he could tomorrow. He imagined planning meetings with guidance counselors, doing online researching, talking with his parents. “I’ll do it tomorrow.” He had told himself nearly every day. The procrastinator’s motto. 

Sighing, he picked up his phone again.

[To: Asahi]  
[Subject: not yet]  
[Message: no I haven’t finished it yet, why?]

He hit send and went back to his messages list. He still hadn’t replied to Suga’s message. In all honesty he didn't really know what to say to him. Suga was a sweetheart, yes, but he also had that setter’s intuition- that very keen ability to read a situation and deduce people’s intentions. It made him a wonderful setter but a frustrating person to keep secrets from. Still, he had promised Tsukishima that he wouldn’t say anything. 

[To: Suga]  
[Subject: Tsukishima]  
[Message: Yeah he wanted to see if he could miss a practice next week. Something about a new CD coming out. I told him no way.]

Making a mental note to make sure he clued Tsukishima into his lie, Daichi hit send. A second later his phone vibrated again.

[Time: 10:45]  
[From: Asahi]  
[Subject: lost]  
[Message: i lost mine ;^; i had it all filled out and everything! i was thinking that if i could find someone who hadn’t filled theirs in yet i could make a copy of it at the convenience store. is that ok?]

[To: Asahi]  
[Subject: of course]  
[Message: yeah, that's fine where do you want to meet up?]

[Time: 10:49]  
[From: Asahi]  
[Subject: errands]  
[Message: i have to run some other errands too so if it isn’t too much trouble how about meeting downtown? ah but if that's too much trouble then i can just meet you at your place]

[To: Asahi]  
[Subject: that's fine]  
[Message: no that works for me, lets meet a little after lunch, say, 1:00?]

[Time: 10:54]  
[From: Asahi]  
[Subject: ok]  
[Message: ok thank you so much! see you then :)]

And immediately as Daichi finished reading that message his phone vibrated again: 

[Time: 10:59]  
[From: Suga]  
[Subject: weird]  
[Message: are you sure that's it? your text was strangely formal, and when that happens it usually means you are worried about something]

Shit. There it was again. That damned setter’s intuition. Luckily he had just been given the perfect excuse. Being careful to type this text up as casually as possible he wrote:

[To: Suga]  
[Subject: everythings fine]  
[Message: im just stressed out about the future plans sheet due tomorrow]

[Time: 11:05]  
[From: Suga]  
[Subject: asahi]  
[Message: oh yeah asahi was freaking out about that too, he said he asked everyone in our class for a blank one, but everyone was already finished]

Of course everyone was already finished. Everyone else already had grand plans for their futures. He was the only one with no clue. 

[To: Suga]  
[Subject: asahi]  
[Message: yeah we are meeting up downtown at 1 so he can make a copy of mine, you can join us if you want]

[Time: 11:09]  
[From: Suga]  
[Subject: downtown]  
[Message: sounds like fun! see you there!]

Feeling strangely drained for someone who had barely been up an hour, Daichi put his phone down and made his way downstairs to eat breakfast/lunch and take a shower. 

 

Approximately two hours later he met up with Suga and Asahi in front of the downtown Karasuno train station. Karasuno’s downtown wasn’t particularly grand, being only several blocks crammed with various shops and food places, but it got the job done. They took care of their primary reason for meeting up first- walking to the nearest convenience store and making a 10 yen copy of Daichi’s future plans survey. 

As they walked out of the store Asahi began thanking Daichi profusely.

“It’s no problem! I needed an excuse to get out of the house anyways.” Daichi said. “What other errands did you have to run?”

“I need to pick up a book from the bookstore for my dad and pick up some new drill bits from the hardware store for my mom.” Asahi replied.

“What does your mom need drill bits for??” Suga asked incredulously.

“She’s a very handy woman. I get my build from her.” Asahi said. 

Daichi tried imagining an older, more feminine version of Asahi. He already had the long hair, just get rid of the facial hair and add some breasts…

“Are you two imagining me as a woman?!” Asahi exclaimed.

Daichi looked over at Suga and saw that he too had been pulled from a most-likely-similar daydream by Asahi’s yelling.

“Ahahahaha sorry Asahi!” Suga laughed. “I couldn’t help myself!” He giggled helplessly. Daichi couldn’t help himself either and joined in the laughter. 

The three made their way down to the bookstore like that- Daichi and Suga giggling and Asahi blushing and telling them to stop. At the bookstore Asahi took only a moment to get the pre-ordered book from the clerk, but Suga wanted to have a look around at some of the test prep books. 

After twenty minutes of watching Suga hover between his choices without seeming any closer to actually reaching a decision, Asahi announced that he was going to go pick up the drill bits for his mother. Daichi eagerly offered to tag along- wanting to get as far away from the test prep books as possible. Suga told them to go and that as soon as he was done he would catch up with them. 

As they walked along the sidewalk towards the hardware store Asahi asked, “Are you having problems figuring out what to put on the future plans survey?”

“Not really,” Daichi lied. “I’ve just been too busy lately to sit down and work on it.” That was partially the truth. He had been very busy lately. He also knew that even if he did sit down and work on it he would have no ideas. Asahi seemed to accept his answer, however, and the two of them entered the hardware store without another word on the subject.

As Asahi made his way over to the power tools section to find what he needed, Daichi found himself meandering from aisle to aisle. He had wandered aimlessly down an aisle labeled “Paints, Primers, and Stains” when something caught his eye. At the end of the aisle was a large shelving unit crammed with all imaginable colors and types of spray paints. One shelve in particular caught his attention- a shelf containing a rainbow of neon colored spray paints advertised as “high visibility”. 

He thought back to his last entry on his list of solutions to the ball visibility problem. Why bother buying a whole bunch of new balls when he could spray paint the balls they already had? The pricing on the paint wasn’t bad and it promised to be “waterproof, weatherproof, and long lasting”. Before he even knew what he was doing Daichi had grabbed an armful of cans and was buying them at the checkout counter. 

It only really hit him what he just did when he ran into Asahi, who had also just finished purchasing his goods, and Suga, who had apparently finished up at the bookstore. The three of them made their way out of the store and started walking towards the station when Suga noticed the bags of paint. 

“What’s with the bags?” Suga asked, tilting his head.

“Oh these?” Daichi said, trying to play casual. “I’m going to spray paint all of our volleyballs.” Shit. So much for casual.

“You’re going to what?” Suga asked. “Are you mad at the coaches or something?”

“We can’t become vandals Daichi!” Asahi said with watery eyes. “A life of crime is no good!” 

“I’m not going to vandalize anything!” Daichi said. “Well, I mean technically it will be vandalism I guess. I haven’t really thought out all the details yet. But I’m not doing it because I’m angry or anything! I’m doing it to help-“ he caught himself before he gave away more than he wanted to “-the team. It’s to help the team.” He repeated lamely.

“The team?” Suga asked. “In what way?” 

“I-“ Daichi started, rooting around in his brain frantically for some logical reason for a person to want to break into his schools gymnasium and spray paint a bunch of volleyballs fluorescent colors. “I read this article recently. About volleyball. It said that brighter colored balls improve accuracy on receives by like 60%. I thought of it when I saw these spray paint cans at the store and I guess I just acted on impulse.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense.” Suga said. “But shouldn’t we ask Coach Ukai or Takeda-sensei for permission before we just go and vandalize school property?”

“Stop saying vandalize!” Asahi cried. He looked around frantically to make sure no one nearby was listening to them. He then leaned in closer to his friends and whispered, “When were you thinking about doing this anyways?”

That was a good question. Daichi had promised Tsukishima that he would find a solution to his problems. If Daichi didn’t do something by practice tomorrow Tsukishima might be disappointed and try to quit the team again. And besides, he wanted to be able to make his kohai as comfortable as possible as soon as possible.

“Tonight I guess.” Daichi said. 

“Tonight?!” Suga exclaimed. “Is this really that important to you?”

Daichi looked Suga in the eyes and said, “Yeah. It’s pretty important.”

Daichi’s sudden seriousness took both Suga and Asahi aback. The two exchanged worried glances. They knew that Daichi was very serious when it came to captaining their team, but this seemed a little extreme. 

Sensing his friends’ hesitation, Daichi said, “You two don’t have to help me. I have a key; I can do this on my own. You two can just pretend that I never said anything about this. I wouldn’t want you guys to get in trouble anyways.”

“Geez, stop trying to be so noble!” Suga said. He smacked Daichi on the back and grinned widely. “If this is really that important to you there is no way we wouldn’t help out, right Asahi?”

“Yes.” Asahi agreed. “I don’t care even if I get in trouble! I have way worse rumors going around about me anyways! I want to be someone who is strong enough to support my friends.”

“That’s the spirit!” Suga said. “Now come on! Let’s go vandalize some school property!” 

“Suga! Not so loud!” Asahi cried.

 

 

Daichi returned home that night exhausted and covered in several colors of spray paint. He had never really understood how many balls their club had until that evening. Hundreds. Maybe not hundreds but probably at least one hundred. It felt like more. 

It had taken them eight hours. They hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to paint the entire surface of the balls, and so had settled on a method of painting one half, waiting for it to dry, and then painting the other half. Asahi had saved them in thinking to bring a variety of tarps to lay down in order to prevent the paint from getting on the gym floor. The only thing left to do was see if the balls were any help. And figure out some way to keep from getting in big trouble. 

A little woozy from paint fumes, and with the feeling that tomorrow was going to be a long, long day, Daichi flopped into his bed fully clothed and fell fast asleep.


End file.
